A comparative study of various types of artificial roughness geometries in the absorber plate of solar air heater duct and their characteristics, investigated for the heat transfer and friction characteristics, has been presented. The performance evaluation in terms of eta(I), eta(ef) and eta(II) has been carried out, for various values of Re, for some selected artificial roughness geometries in the absorber plate of solar air heater duct. The six roughness geometries as per the order of ability to create turbulence and a smooth surface have been selected. The correlations for heat transfer and coefficient of friction developed by respective investigators have been used to calculate efficiencies. It is found that artificial roughness on absorber surface effectively increases the efficiencies in comparison to smooth surface. The eta(I) in general increases in the following sequence: smooth surface, circular ribs, V shaped ribs, wedge shaped rib, expanded metal mesh, rib-grooved, and chamfered rib-groove. The eta(ef) based criteria also follows same trend of variation among various considered geometries, and trend is reversed at very high Re. The eta(II) based criteria also follows the same pattern; but the trend is reversed at relatively lower value of Re and for higher range of Re the eta(II) approaches zero or may be negative. It is found that for the higher range of Re circular ribs and V shaped ribs give appreciable eta(II) up to high Re; while for low Re chamfered rib-groove gives more eta(II). (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.